Reserve Bank Funding Agreement ratified

A new five-year Funding
Agreement (PDF 1.11MB) for the Reserve Bank was ratified by Parliament
yesterday.

"The Funding Agreement ensures that the Bank has sufficient resources
to meet its expanded role and obligations while maintaining tight control of
costs," Governor Graeme Wheeler said.

The Funding Agreement is an important instrument
for maintaining the Bank's operational independence in that it provides
multi-year funding and specifies how much of the Bank's income may be used
to fund the Bank's operating expenses. The new Funding Agreement is valid
from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2020.

The new agreement sees the Bank's core operating expenditure increase
marginally from $49.0 million in 2014-15 to $49.6 million in 2015-16, and then
increase to $52.1 million by the final year, 2019-20. Funding for the direct
costs of issuing banknotes and coins is separate within the agreement, and
amounts to $14.4 million in 2015-16 and $20.2 million in 2016-17 before reducing
to $11.1 million in 2019-20.

"The increase in core operating expenditure over the five years is
modest, averaging 1.3 percent per year," said Mr Wheeler.

The Bank has a number of important projects underway, including those related
to issuance of new banknotes, development of the Bank's treasury systems,
and an upgrade of its payment and settlement systems.

Mr Wheeler said the new Funding Agreement has been made in an environment of
fiscal constraint. Productivity improvements, which include some reductions in
staffing levels that began in February 2015, will restrain the growth in
costs.

"The Reserve Bank's responsibilities have expanded considerably
since 2008, including prudential supervision of insurers and anti-money
laundering supervision, and it has developed its macro-prudential policy
capabilities and toolkit."

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